Rating: 
Summary: One of Jack's best
Review: this film captures Navy Life on point. everything going down here is the real deal from start to finish.the film never lets up&brings everything to point.Jack Nicolson&Randy Quaid have Great Performances here. once you see this film you will be clued.
Rating:
Summary: Gets better with each viewing; an overlooked classic
Review: This is one of my favorites, but it's also one of the most difficult movies to describe to people. Yes, it's about two experienced guys in the Navy who are assigned to escort a young charge (whom they don't know) to Naval prison. And yes, they have some fun along the way, knowing how sad the situation really is. But there's an indescribable something about "The Last Detail" that just gets to me on a pretty deep level. First of all, it's the acting. I mean if you ever question Jack Nicholson's talent and depth as an actor, then watch this movie. I beg to argue about who on earth could have ever embodied this role this deeply. I don't think any of the other big and great actors of his time could have pulled it off this perfectly (Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, George C. Scott, Robert DeNiro). Also, Otis Young and Randy Quaid are pitch-perfect in their roles as well, though the movie clearly belongs to Nicholson. This is a GREAT PERFORMANCE!! It's the definition of one! But in addition to the acting, the photography of the film is brilliant. It captures the times and places in a rather bleak yet very haunting way. The guys drinking beer in the parking garage in D.C. The three of them pressed into the small hotel room in D.C., along with all those empty beer bottles. Walking a quiet and snowy residential block in Camden, NJ. Walking the streets of nighttime NYC. Playing darts in a bar in NYC. Going to a late night party in an NYC apartment. Going to a Boston brothel. Trying to grill and have a picnic in the middle of a snowy park in Boston! I don't know if it's just my fascination with the time that causes me to find it so darn striking, but it just is. I find these scenes so haunting, and so REAL. To me, those two things are what make this film so exceptional. The dialogue is also brilliant, as is the complexity of the emotions that are raised by the story. I guess it works on a lot of levels. Just don't miss it, whether you're a Nicholson fan or not. But if you are a Nicholson fan, don't miss out on what is probably his greatest performance!!
Rating:
Summary: Much underrated, very close to Five Easy Pieces in punch.
Review: True compassion in the face of tragedy, a coming-of-age film both delicate and harsh in its treatment of life and loss: Innocence punished, but love not denied. Two sailors try to make the last days of freedom of a third into a lifetime of love and lust, and, unavoidably, the result is loss. Five stars fer-sher. Nicholson has never been finer.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific picture, terrible DVD.
Review: Two naval officers are escorting a kid to military prison - they've got a week to do what should only take them two days - they get into all kind of adventures, and stick it to the man every step of the way.
Its not narrative-driven cinema, but it has something I really like in my movies - it establishes a little world where you feel like spending time. Its precisely because the character just cut loose across the country, instead of having these major structural changes along the way.
This is not a must-see film, but if you've already seen some of the must-see Nicholson 70's classics like Chinatown and Cuckoo's Nest, this one is just as interesting. Great characters, involving little story and well performed by Nicholson (Vacation's Randy Quaid is not so good), and neither is the third guy.
Really grainy, dirty transfer - looks terrible - but at least its a nice fat widescreen image. Hardly any special features, too. For those reasons i recommend you save this one for rental.
Rating:
Summary: SIMPLY THE BEST
Review: When I first saw this great film I was living in Australia and this was my first taste of east coast 70"s USA in winter and it was spot on.Since then I have spent many a long cold winter in Pa ,thats why I now live happily in Fla. Other reviewers have told the story of the film really well but I feel that this was easily Nicholsons best as he nails every scene without smothering his two "shipmates: .I will turn on this masterpiece of real life just to see a certain scene when I have the time.The beginning; " when you"re in the navy , and you"re in transit no one knows where the f--k you are, so go tell the M A A to go f--k himself." or to relive the bar scene where Nicholson loses it when the bartender refuses to serve the kid as they try to show him a good time before he goes to the brig for 8 years.Yes it is certainly a film that ranks with the greats , I watch it regularly and I strongly recommend it to anyone 17 years and older.
Rating:
Summary: Adentures with Two Bleeping Lifers
Review: When this film was completed 30 years ago, executives at Columbia Pictures really did not know what to do with it and probably would have allowed it to disappear had Nicholson not received an award as best actor at the Cannes Film Festival. Based on Darryl Ponicscan's novel, it traces the one-week journey of two "lifers" in the U.S. Navy (Nicholson and Young) who are ordered to transport and deliver another seaman (Quaid) who has been convicted of theft and sentenced to eight years in military prison. Brilliantly directed by Hal Ashby in a breakthrough role as "Badass" Buddusky, Nicholson takes pity on Meadows and convinces his associate Mulhall to allow Meadows one last fling before imprisonment. En route north from the naval base in Virginia, they treat him to several rounds of drinks and even arrange for him to spend some time with a prostitute (Carol Kane). Finally, they complete their assignment and the film ends. The energy of the plot (developed within a screenplay by Robert Towne) has much less to do with physical action than with the profane language which correctly indicates Buddusky's subversive attitude toward authority. (Why a maverick such as Buddusky was selected for service as a military policeman is never explained.) When seeing this film for the first time many years ago, my initial reaction was that Buddusky and Mulhall improvise their own version of a "right of passage" for their young charge. I still think so. Of course, Meadows is a willing, indeed eager participant. For me, it is almost impossible to ignore Nicholson whenever he appears on screen and that is especially true of this film (and of several others, notably One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and As Good as It Gets) in which his presence dominates each scene. The relentlessly profane language seems appropriate as Buddusky's confrontational personality energizes their own conversations as well as their encounters with civilians. When the film ends, Meadows begins to serve his eight-year term and presumably Buddusky and Mulhall return to the naval base in Virginia. They will never forget their week together and neither will I.
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